Book 1 Project: Fan Experience

The Pitch

When readers buy a special edition of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, they will also receive a link and a QR code to the online virtual simulation of Daniel LeBlanc’s model cities. They can click through the cities to weave through their streets, following the paths Marie-Laure took to the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, the bakery of Madame Ruelle, and the seaside grotto.

The Origin

Daniel LeBlanc made his daughter a model of St. Malo, and the miniature of Etienne’s house allows her a home base to orient herself around when she explores the outside world. It is the center of the world as she knows it, which is limited by her blindness. It’s also symbolic as the center of Daniel’s gift to Marie-Laure, and therefore, a symbol of the core of his deep devotion to her. Daniel tries to teach his daughter to be more independent with his model cities. He used to always lead Marie-Laure home from the museum in Paris, but one day, he encouraged her to guide him, saying, “I want you to think of the model, Marie” (36).

Daniel created the house also as a safe with a complex locking mechanism. In that safe, he stored the Sea of Flames, a precious diamond sought out by Nazi forces, especially Austrian gemologist von Rumpel. His pursuit of this diamond eventually leads to the novel’s climax, as he determines that the diamond is contained by the model house and is in Marie-Laure’s possession. The gemologist relentlessly hunts Marie-Laure, trapping her inside the attic. Meanwhile Werner, a young German soldier, decides to defend Marie-Laure since he enjoyed her grandfather’s radio broadcasts when he was a boy. At the pinnacle of the novel, he kills von Rumpel and helps Marie-Laure out of the city.

The fact that the house and the city are devoid of inhabitants is another important motif in the novel. As German soldiers begin to overwhelm St. Malo and to capture greater numbers of its insurgent citizens, Marie-Laure thinks that the coastal settlement “is slowly being remade into the model…streets sucked empty one by one” (274). The empty house and city serve as a ghostly facsimile that the true city starts to parallel with the influx of German occupation.

The model also supplements the book’s mystical, philosophical style, since Doerr implements it in his analogies. “What mazes there are in this world... the streets her father recreated in his models...None more complicated than the human brain, Etienne would say, what may be the most complex object in existence; one wet kilogram within which spin universes,” Doerr writes in awe of our species (452-453). He intends for the reader to marvel at his or her own serpentine mind by claiming that it’s even more intricate than Daniel Le Blanc’s model city. This analogy elevates the ethereal atmosphere of the novel. Doerr also often crafts his figurative language around the model of the house. As Marie-Laure flees Paris with her father, she senses its fragility, “as if all this time the city has been no more than a scale model built by her father and the shadow of a great hand has fallen over it” (71-72).

The Audience

                

             This experience would prolong fans’ devotion to the book, just as the Pottermore site has spurred on the Harry Potter following. It would grant them an interactive experience, allowing them to connect with Marie-Laure by virtually following in her footsteps. Readers who haven’t traveled to Paris or St. Malo may also be intrigued by a concrete image of it, especially since the models came prior to damage from World War II. This idea also highlights the historical aspect of the novel, educating its readers about early-mid 20^th century France. It could be incorporated into a teacher’s lesson plan. Perhaps, if the virtual model were very accurate, it could be featured on the History Channel, along with an analysis of the book’s historical references. Perhaps history buffs would be enticed to purchase a copy.

Model of Etienne’s house in St. Malo